Audit: Texas traffic fatalities down since 2006

A state audit indicates traffic fatalities in Texas have declined nearly 15 percent since 2006.

Details of the audit of the Texas Department of Transportation were released Wednesday.

Transportation officials say increased seat belt usage and "Click It or Ticket" traffic campaigns have led to safer travel.

The Austin American-Statesman (http://bit.ly/ONpzwI ) reports Texas in 2010, the most recent year in the report, had 3,028 traffic deaths and about 234 billion miles of driving.

That works out to 1.29 deaths per 100 million miles driven. The formula is used by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for evaluating road safety. Texas in 2006 had a rate of 1.5 deaths per 100 million miles traveled.

The nationwide rate in 2010 was 1.11 deaths per 100 miles million traveled.